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Workflow Actions: Project Management
Workflow Actions: Project Management
Automate project status changes, adding tags, creating reminders, and more to manage your projects through workflows.
Sam Gioia avatar
Written by Sam Gioia
Updated over a week ago

A workflow action is what you want the workflow to do. For example, an action could be sending an email or creating a reminder.

Certain actions can help you keep projects organized and on track, including automatically adding a tag, creating a reminder, or changing a project status at a specific milestone. This article goes in-depth on the various project management actions.
 

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Create Todo

What it does: creates a reminder for yourself or one of your multi-users.

How to set it up:

  1. In the Reminder text area, enter the content for the todo.

  2. Select an Assigned User if you would like.

  3. Check the box for Send email reminder if you would like the assigned user to receive an email with the reminder when this action is triggered.

Here's what a todo will look like once created, following the example above:

Common uses: Todos are extremely valuable in your workflow building. Send reminders to yourself for any manual tasks that you have with clients (phone calls, meetings, general project tasks).

Tips: 

  • It is not possible to set due dates on todos created through the workflow.

  • Assigning tasks is optional. However, even if you are the only person in your brand, you will need to assign a task to yourself if you would like to see them appear on your Dubsado dashboard. Otherwise the task will only be visible on the Tasks page and within the Tasks tab of the project.

  • Add more detail on what you need to accomplish with the use of smart fields in your reminder text. For example, if you need to call the client, instead of just writing “Call client,” you can use Smart Field >> Client >> Full Name to auto-populate the client’s name which makes looking for that information much easier!

  • If you have a multi-user assigned and the Send email reminder box checked, BOTH the multi-user AND the brand owner will receive emails. But the task will only appear on the multi-user's dashboard.

 

Change Project Status

What it does: automatically moves the project into the project status of your choice.

How to set it up:

  1. Select the project status you would like the project to move into at this step.

  2. Review the trigger for this action to ensure the project status change will happen at the appropriate time.

Common uses: Changing the project status to match where the project is at in the workflow.

In the example below, let’s say our new client just scheduled a consult call, and now I want the workflow to move them into the “Consultation Booked” status. The statuses are set up accordingly and the Change Project Status action is triggered "0 days after an appointment is scheduled." As soon as the client schedules an appointment, their project will immediately move into the "Consultation Booked" status.

Tips: 

  • Create your project statuses to match the flow of your process to take advantage of this workflow feature!

  • We recommend first creating the foundational structure of your workflow, then identifying the statuses you would like to use, and finally adding Change Project Status actions throughout the workflow appropriately.

 

Add Tag

What it does: automatically adds one or more tags to the project.

How to set it up:

  1. Select the tag(s) you would like to apply to the project at this step.

Common uses: Applying a tag specific to the service the client is interested in. Great when you have multiple workflows for different services linked up to a lead capture form with a workflow element.

For example, let's say a prospective client says they are interested in web design by selecting that option from the workflow element dropdown on your lead capture. Your "web design" workflow begins, and the first action adds the Web Design tag. If they had selected logo design, the "logo design" workflow would have started, and the first action in that workflow would add the Logo Design tag.

Tips: 

  • Use the Add Tag action at the very beginning of a workflow started from a lead capture so that you can easily see what the client is inquiring about by recognizing the tag on the Projects page.

 

Activate/Deactivate Portal

What it does: activates or deactivates the client portal without sending notification to the client or setting a password.

The workflow has the ability to activate or deactivate the client portal. This action will NOT send the client an email with the link and password to the portal. You will need to add a separate Send Email action in order to send them that information. If you want to have a password set up for the client, that will also need to be done manually.

Below is an example of a common workflow structure for sending portal details to the client. First there is a todo reminding you to set a password, after that is checked off the portal will activate, and after the portal is active the email containing the portal link and password smart fields will be sent to the client.

Deactivating the client portal is not a necessary step unless you want to revoke the client's access at a certain point in your process. Client portals can remain active as long as you would like so the client can always come back and view their contracts, invoices, and forms.
 

Archive Project

What it does: archives the project and pauses all workflows.

If you would like to move your completed projects to the Archived status automatically, you can do so with the Archive Project action.

Remember that archiving a project with a LEAD status deletes any invoices on that project. Archiving a Project with a JOB status keeps the invoices, just brings it into the Archived status.

Any time you archive a project, all workflows will immediately pause. If you have additional follow ups set to send through a workflow weeks or months after a project finishes, do not archive the project until all workflows are completely finished.

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